"Mortar Rafts" Topic

I have some 1/600 Peter Pig mortar rafts to paint up.

Any idea if they were simply left as unpainted wood or were they in a particular colour?

Alan

I am pretty sure they were mostly unpainted wood

At least, mine are!

Mortar rafts did not have a long service life. The recoil of the mortar would eventually break the deck timbers and split the hull. So plain wood is fine.

Thanks. Plain wood it is!

Looking at some photos I saw at least one that looked like it was painted black.

Weren't they armored with boiler plate which gave them a almost black color?

I don't think they were armored since they were never supposed to directly engage the enemy. They did have heavy timber construction to stand the strain of firing.

They look like they are painted black to me as well, check out some photos of them.

link

I found a reference that says they had 1/2" iron plate over the casement sides. link

Jack Coggins book Arms and Equipment of the Civil war also says the sides were covered in boiler plate. The armor was protection from sniper fire.

Again, many thanks. I think a black/gray should do nicely.